M&P SIRT: Our good friends at Next Level Training have had a bumpy road getting their M&P SIRT to the market. Those who have been wanting one know that it was slated for introduction several times since 2013, and have understandably been frustrated. We have been privy to all the stages of development and seen the various prototypes, and we can assure you that this brand new design is even better than the previous versions. This ground up design features an all new trigger mechanism that is easily adjustable from outside the gun, and has tested over 300,000 trigger pulls and still going strong.

The .375 Holland & Holland Magnum (9.5×72mmB) is a medium-bore rifle cartridge. The .375 H&H was only the second cartridge ever to feature a belt, now common among magnum rounds.The belt is for headspace, due to the narrow shoulder. The belt replaced the rim in function on these new rimless cartridges.

It was introduced by the British company Holland & Holland in 1912 as the .375 Belted Rimless Nitro-Express. It initially used cordite propellant which was made in long strands – hence the tapered shape of this cartridge, which was also to ensure smooth chambering and extraction from a rifle’s breech.

The .375 H&H is often cited as one of the most useful all-round rifle cartridges, especially where large and dangerous game are found.[4] With relatively light bullets in the region of 235 to 270 grains (15 to 17 g), it is a flat-shooting, fairly long-range cartridge ideal for use on light to medium game. With heavy bullets of 300 grains (19 g) and greater, it has the punch necessary for large, thick-skinned dangerous game. In many regions with thick-skinned dangerous game animals, the .375 H&H is seen as the minimum acceptable caliber, and in many places (in Africa, primarily) it is now the legal minimum for hunting such game. African game guides, professional hunters, and dangerous game cullers have repeatedly voted the .375 H&H as their clear preference for an all-round caliber if they could only have one rifle. A similar preference has been expressed by Alaskan game guides for brown bear and polar bear country.

Unlike what is seen in most calibers, many .375 H&H rifles also achieve nearly the same point of impact over a wide range of bullet weights at all commonly used distances, further simplifying a professional hunter’s choice in selecting different grain bullets based upon the game hunted. This requires less scope or sight adjustments, which further serves to popularize the .375 H&H Magnum among professional hunters

Have you ever bought rifle ammo and noticed discoloration around the case neck? Other shooters frequently ask us about that burned or almost “charred” look that some ammunition has. The concern is understandable, since you likely don’t see that burned look on every batch of ammo you purchase.

But there is no cause for concern. That discoloration comes from heat applied directly to the case neck and shoulder and it’s a normal part of the ammunition manufacturing process. This process is called annealing, and whether or not you can visibly see evidence of it on your new ammo, all bottleneck style brass rifle cases are annealed before being shipped to the customer.

Check out the video for more and to get an inside look inside the annealing process. The folks at Hornady were kind enough to let us behind the scenes to capture some video of their manufacturing process so we could help shooters learn a little bit more about what goes into producing their world-class ammunition.

Some of the most widely repeated advice regarding rifle scope buying is to spend as much or more money on the scope as you did on the rifle you wish to put it on. I can’t say I agree that that is always necessary, but I do appreciate and agree with the underlying message; don’t cheap out on your scope!

A bad scope can make an excellent rifle nearly useless while a quality one will allow you to get the most out of whatever rifle it sits on. When you look at today’s flourishing optics market, the temptation to buy a lower cost scope is stronger than ever with many imported optics promising all the features of scopes costing ten times as much.

This begs a very important question; namely, what is it that high-end scopes offer that cheaper alternatives don’t? To help answer this question I hit the range with three different tactical riflescopes and conducted a head-to-head evaluation.